Tony Gwynn has returned the Aztecs’ dugout after undergoing a second cancer operation.
— Nelvin C. Cepeda

San Diego State baseball coach and Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn underwent surgery Tuesday evening to remove a cancerous tumor inside his right cheek.

The operation at UC San Diego’s Thornton Hospital began sometime after 9:30 a.m. and continued into the evening, according to Gwynn’s wife, Alicia.

“We’re making sure this time that we’re getting everything out,” Alicia Gwynn said Tuesday evening, “whether it involves his facial nerves, which the transplants will help anyway. We’re just really trying to attack this thing aggressively so we can get it all out and be done with it.

“No chemo. No radiation. The doctors said the best thing is just go in and get it all out.”

Members of the Aztecs baseball family have known for about two weeks that this day was coming.

“We’re just saying prayers for him,” said SDSU associate head coach Mark Martinez, who will lead the team in Gwynn’s absence. “We’ve known for a little bit of time that he had a little bit of a setback. The kids are all rallied up.

“He’s been out here every day until this day today. He’s going to be missed, but the kids are fine. They’re thinking about him. They’ve put together a little video for him and some cards and stuff. They’re going to take it over to him (today) or Thursday.”

Gwynn’s cancer originally was discovered in August 2010. He had surgery to remove lymph nodes and tumors from the gland Aug. 30, 2010, and later that year underwent eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, which ended just before Christmas.

ESPN.com, which first reported the return of Gwynn’s cancer, said that according to Alicia Gwynn, doctors do not believe the cancer has spread outside of Gwynn’s salivary gland. But she expected to know more after the latest intricate surgery, in which she said five doctors would likely perform a nerve graft to preserve Gwynn’s facial functions.

“They were either going to take it from the shoulder or the leg, whichever one’s the longest,” Alicia Gwynn said. “Everybody’s confident about it.”

Earlier, she told
ESPN.com: “Tony told them to take (the malignant tumor) all out. They said they may need to remove the facial nerve — they might have to go a lot deeper. But he just told them to take it out.”

“Hopefully, his face will work fine; hopefully he’ll be able to blink his eye. They said they will make his face as normal as they can — and that it might be better than it was.”

Asked to comment in general terms about parotid cancer, because he isn’t familiar with the specifics of Gwynn’s case, Dr. Albert McClain Jr., board certified in otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) at Sharp Chula Vista, said:

“There is a variety of salivary gland cancers. They all have their own behavior patterns. Most can be cured. The prognosis can be very good. If you have previous surgery at the site. it can be more complicated. If you are talking about nerve replacement, the recuperation could be six months to a year, and there’s a chance the nerve and the face will never work quite the same. The two facial nerves (one on each side) control the side of the face.”